When we kicked off the National Bike Challenge in May, we knew our goal was ambitious: Unite American bicyclists to ride 10 million miles this summer. Well, with three months behind us and just one month to go, we're on pace to FAR exceed even that impressive milestone.

Bicycles are here to stay as part of our transportation system. While MAP-21 reorganizes and reduces funding opportunities, advocates and agency staff will need to look beyond Transportation Alternatives.

In the five years from 2007 to 2011, states spent 1.8 billion federal transportation dollars on bicycle and pedestrian projects from sources other than Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails - our “dedicated” sources.There are two things to learn from that statement: 1. STATES spend federal transportation dollars.Therefore, it is state and local advocacy that...

The feeling most associated with the new federal transportation, MAP-21, is disappointment – and with good reason. It is a highway-focused bill. Dedicated funding to bicycling and walking projects was cut and it will be a fight to get what’s left spent in states across the country.